Mick Jagger sang that you can't always get what you want. Jordan Smith is proof that sometimes you find, you get what you need. We all wanted to see Smith develop some power and that is exactly what is happening in August. To read all about Smith's powerful night, a 2013 draft pick dominating in Mahoning Valley, and everything else you need to know about the night in the minor leagues, join Jim Piascik as he takes you Around The Farm.

After being swept by Salem to close out the home schedule, the Carolina Mudcats could ill afford another loss and responded to that in a big way, defeating the Lynchburg Hillcats 12-11 in seven innings on Wednesday night.

In the home season finale, the Carolina Mudcats dropped a heartbreaker 6-4 to the Salem Red Sox in 12 innings. The loss drops Carolina to 31-32 for the second half and six games behind Salem with seven games to play.

One of the most common sayings in sports is it’s not how you start, but how you finish. After a dismal first half, the Carolina Mudcats are currently in the middle of a push for the final playoff spot in the Carolina League, and a big reason for that, is star right fielder Jordan Smith. After a slow start he has come on of late and is putting up another good season, and the IBI's Zachary Francis recently caught up with him to see how his season has gone.

After tying the game in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Carolina Mudcats lost a battle to the Salem Red Sox 4-2 in 12 innings on Saturday night. The loss drops Carolina four games behind Salem in the division race with nine games remaining.

Despite squandering some early scoring chances, the Carolina Mudcats jumped out to a four run lead to back a dominant pitching performance by Nick Pasquale to defeat the Lynchburg Hillcats 4-1 on Friday night to salvage a four game series split.

In this week’s second edition of Minor Happenings, Tony takes a look at the impressive pro debut by Clint Frazier out in Arizona, where he is excelling/struggling, and where the numbers can also be misleading. He also provides several comments from the front office on some lesser talked about players at Lake County such as Luis Morel, Jeremy Lucas, Richard Stock, Joe Sever and others, and provides insight into Jose Ramirez’s big league future, Francisco Lindor’s season being over, the breakout year for Erik Gonzalez and much more.

Even though Danny Salazar has come up to the major leagues and gotten results, the organization has not done the best job of developing starting pitching in recent years. There are a few pitchers making waves now, but long-term success will rely on more than one or two arms. Joseph Colon is one of those guys Cleveland needs to develop in order to have more starting depth and he showed what he is capable of Thursday. To read all about Colon's night and everything else you need to know about the minor leagues, join Jim Piascik as he takes you Around The Farm.

Joe Colon did not allow a base runner to second over seven scoreless innings and the Carolina Mudcats provided plenty of offense in an 8-2 win over the Lynchburg Hillcats on Thursday night at Five County Stadium.

The ups and downs of a long baseball season can affect even the best players. There was a point when Carolina second baseman Joe Wendle and Lake County right-hander Dylan Baker were red-hot, yet of late, the pair had struggled. That was not the case Wednesday night as both broke out in big ways. To read about their night and everything you need to know about Wednesday in the minor leagues, join Jim Piascik as he takes you Around The Farm.

SALEM – For the second straight night, the Carolina Mudcats allowed the Salem Red Sox to jump out to a big early lead, but rallied to eventually tie the game before finally losing a heartbreaker 10-9 on Tuesday night. The loss drops Carolina (29-27, 51-75) 2.5 games behind Salem for the final wildcard spot.

In this week’s opening Minor Happenings salvo, Tony takes a look at the excitement that is brewing with Low-A Lake County right-handed pitching prospect Dylan Baker and why he is one of the Indians best pitching prospects. He also provides several comments from Ross Atkins on players at Double-A Akron such as Tyler Holt, Carlos Moncrief, Will Roberts and others, and provides lots of insight into the development of Jesus Aguilar, Luis DeJesus, Caleb Hamrick, Sean Brady, Jorge Martinez and others.

The Carolina Mudcats fell into a huge hole early, and were never able to recover, falling to the Salem Red Sox 9-2 on Monday night. The loss dropped Carolina 29-26 in the second half and fall 1.5 games behind Salem for the final playoff position.

The Carolina Mudcats took game one of a doubleheader against the Salem Red Sox 7-1 on Sunday afternoon before dropping game two 3-1. The doubleheader split keeps the Mudcats a half game out of the wildcard spot in the playoff race behind Salem.

In today’s week ending edition of Minor Happenings, Tony takes a look at High-A Carolina outfield prospect Jordan Smith who continues to make incremental progress and has the skills but has a few things he is still working on before he is taken more seriously as a prospect. In addition to that he provides some comments from Ross Atkins on how the organization prioritizes prospects for trades as well as comments on several players at Carolina and Lake County, plus he provides insight into the development of Paolo Espino, Kyle Crockett, Ryan Merritt, Luis Lugo and others.

Is there anything better than seeing a top prospect take his team to victory? Sure, Lake County would not have won 1-0 without a shutout pitching performance, but Dorssys Paulino's solo home run provided all the offense the Captains needed. Paulino has continued to turn things around following his rough start and he sustained that constant progress Thursday night. To read about Paulino and everything else you need to know about the night in the minor leagues, join Jim Piascik as he goes Around The Farm.

After taking an early lead, the Carolina Mudcats allowed the Myrtle Beach Pelicans to come back and take the lead before losing a heartbreaker 5-4 on Thursday night. The loss drops Carolina 2.5 games behind the Pelicans in the division race and allows the Salem Red Sox to climb with half a game for the final playoff spot.

Available IBI Books

The 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider book featuring the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is now available. Also, previous editions from 2008-2012 are also available at a discounted rate. Just click on the book image for more information. Thanks again for all the support!